Lighthouses of Lake Havasu

Lighthouses in the desert? It just goes to show you that anything’s possible in Lake Havasu City, where our residents are positively beaming over our lighthouses! Lake Havasu City, as one of the communities, has long been known for Lake Havasu and as home to the historic London Bridge. But these days, we’re as well-known for our lighthouses, which have fast become one of the city’s biggest draws for tourists—to say nothing of their use for the residents of our community.

Each of Lake Havasu’s lighthouses serves a functional purpose, wrapped in their unique aesthetic. Lake Havasu City’s lighthouse project began in 2002, as a solution to the problem of accidents happening on the lake at night, where visibility was poor—the implementation of navigation lights was suggested, but the idea didn’t really take off until Bob Keller, the official director of the Lake Havasu Lighthouse Club, came up with the idea to construct the navigation lights as scale replicas of historically important lighthouses from all over the country. The Lake Havasu Lighthouse, the first mini- sentinel of the community, was constructed in 2002 on a rock pile jutting into the channel near the Nautical Inn, and along with the Information Kiosk, is the only lighthouse structure that doesn’t have a historical origin. The Lake Havasu Marina lighthouse served as the inspiration that set the Lighthouse Club Plan from an idea to a community effort, to improve navigation on the lake, making the water safer for everyone who enjoys it.

Each of Lake Havasu’s lighthouses is a 1/3 scale replica of a famous American lighthouses, and is not a true lighthouse but instead a navigation light. At present, there are over 20 lighthouses providing navigation to Lake Havasu boaters, with no less than a dozen more planned for the future. In 2002, after the success of the Lake Havasu Lighthouse was demonstrated, the first replica lighthouse, West Quoddy, was erected. Lake Havasu’s largest lighthouse replica, North Carolina’s 209-foot Cape Hatteras, stands at 30 feet tall. Seven of our lighthouses stand on the channel that accommodates London Bridge: Cape Hatteras, Currituck Beach, West Quoddy, Robert H. Manning, Split Rock, and Buffalo Main.